1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to data management and more particularly to conducting cross-checks on data.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, information retrieval is accomplished by searches using keywords, people, and dates. If a specific set of information is sought, very specific parameters may need to be input into a system that maintains the information in order to locate the set of information.
For litigation, tax, or regulation purposes, data and evidence within a company is required to be preserved in anticipation of, or during, the legal matter. Traditionally, the company will identify affected employees and systems likely to be associated with the legal matter related data and evidence. In large companies, however, the identification of affected employees and systems is often complex. The complexity may be exacerbated by hundreds or thousands of business systems, drives, and cabinets that house the data. Furthermore, a large company may have any number (e.g., hundreds or thousands) of active legal matters at any one time. Additionally, employee turnover and reassignment may be frequent, making it difficult to determine who is involved in any particular legal matter. Oftentimes, an employee or system may be involved in more than one legal matter which will require the employee or system to preserve data such as documents. Sometimes, the preserved data may transcend more than one legal matter.
For example, when one legal matter is completed, it is desirable to quickly release the employee or system from a legal hold as continued preservation of data and suspension of routine actions can be expensive. However, before the employee or system is released from the legal hold, it would be desirable to perform a cross-check to determine if a legal hold is in effect for a different legal matter. As such, there is a need for a system and method that conducts a cross-check on legal matters across an enterprise system.